Wishing a truly Happy New Year 2016!

Dear friends, the day has come to say Good bye to 2015 and Welcome 2016 year!

I really hope, and I really wish that this new year will bring more peace, love, happiness to everyone on Earth, and to my family particularly! That it will erase bad and paint only good, will make us better than we had been.

Our family wishes a Happy New Year to all of you and your families! Enjoy the celebration, cherish precious time with your loved ones!

Holidays' Spirit Created by Yourself :)

Hello my lovely friends! West Christian Christmas is just round the corner so is the New year! I am full of holidays' spirit these days, creating the mood myself for myself and wanting to share with all of you. I will also visit your lovely blogs soon, since I absolutely LOVE all the holiday posts made by you, and I want to finally keep a pace too :)
(Maybe not related to this post, but I started reading the Thirteenth Tale by Diana Setterfield and I love it! Anyone read it too? Perfect read to divert your thoughts).
My holiday spirit started with ... baking! I tried for the first time to bake cookies in our IFB convection oven. First attempt... hmmm, too sugary and buttery and crunchy, but we ate it all :P

Second attempt - much much better! I am going to use the same recipe with different flavours for Christmas treats. In plans, let's see how it realizes itself, to make a traditional winter wine gluhwein! :) Yumm! I will find this eggless recipe among my notes and provide a link here.

Yahoo, I managed to make some tree ornaments! Which cost zero I believe. Here is a Pinterest inspiration  - a Christmas star ornament made of sticks :) I later painted it golden, and also painted pine cones my D got from Manali last year, more photos are yet to come.

 We went to buy a New year tree few days ago, and it was proudly placed in the drawing room :))) Of course I wanted to have it primary for my little A to enjoy all the celebrations related to Christmas and New Year, since we cannot go to Kazakhstan this winter. But.. I am a big child too, therefor it brings loads of joy to me as well. It is not yet fully decorated in this picture.

And at last... My little boy is now a Christmas elf! :) I don't usually post his pictures in my blog, but it's a special occasion now. How do you like his look? D's childhood sweater (more than 30 years old!), and a red hooded shirt along with a hat created an unexpectedly elf-looking costume. Little A loves wearing this Santa hat, especially that it has become really cold at home. Here are his photos to compare how much he grew since last year. I cannot believe this! :)

To conclude my post ;

Happy holidays and happy coming up Christmas, dear friends, from our family! 

Changes and challenges

Hello my dearest friends! Phew... First of all, everything is fine here in our small city beautiful Chandigarh :) It's just we got a little busy, a little lazy, but very happy too :)
Our baby boy is going to hit his first birthday next month! Wow! Time doesn't fly, it knocks you off your feet, without letting to take a breath and stop a moment... My boy grew and changed so so much since last year... He has got 2 lower teeth, he now can stand with support and he is very active and impatient to explore the world!
My boy's hand... in January when we were going to meet my mom at the Indira Gandhi Airport... His hand is a little bigger now of course.

 A beautiful pouch gifted by my very good blogger friend Preeti from Create -E-witty Unleashed. It came handy and very convenient to take along everywhere I go!

You know how many times I was collecting photos for you, was going to write about my life these days... but I guess I still feel too tired, and head is too full of thoughts about my child now, that I stop half way and leave the idea of opening the blogger... But I never ever stopped and stop thinking about all of you! I hope everyone is doing great and healthy in their cozy homes :)
We are welcoming the monsoon season here, this year, it has arrived on time hopefully. It is extremely humid here, though temperature dropped down from +40 to about +33 in day time :) It makes me happy you can understand how much.This summer I am finally travelling home!!! After 2 years! I am so excited as this time we have planned something new for out trip, I will tell you about it later.
I resumed my office half day and now running between home and work, work and home...I lost loads of weight since last year, which is not unusual when you breastfeed but somehow makes me worry as everyone points out at it. I really need to take a good rest and change the surroundings, get energy from my family and my country, gain some weight, eating the food of my home...
Overall I try to be busy and try not to dive too much into housewifing, however thinking of an opportunity to be with my child home full time and take care of him better than I do now. Thanks to my in-laws for their support and care of their grandson, but children have to be with their parents, not speaking of how much happy my son is when we both are around... he misses us a lot while we are away!
Hence in order to fulfill my plan or a dream, I am trying a new venture - retail business. The idea was given by my D, so I started just few weeks ago and posting mainly on Facebook. Here is the link to my page Authentic Indian Suits if you are interested. I am trading Indian traditional wear - suits, of which there is a great variety and a huge range of designs and shapes!!! I am planning to create a website too whenever I have time...
So don't give up on my blog, I am still around my friends!

Have  a lovely day ahead! Take care!

С Рождеством Христовым 2015.Merry Christmas!

С Рождеством Христовым!  Merry Christmas! 
Today is the Orthodox Christmas. Wishing you, my friends, love, happiness, peace in
your homes, and may all your dreams
come true!
Not sure whether I meet my friends today to celebrate this day but will definitely do it at home with my family. They say you should cook a special dish called кутья (cutya) made of wheat and raisins.

С Рождеством! 

Cakes, crochet and flowers

First of all, Happy New Year to all! May it be happier than the previous one and bring you all the things you wish for! Aww... I have a guilt for abandoning blogging, and lets admit, you my friends... but you never left my mind! Every day I'd think whether I had something ineteresting to tell about, I took pictures but they ended up being locked up in the camera memory card. I freed them today. I so to say freed myself in these last 3 months as My Indian Prince grew a little more. We started going out, I visited my friends, I resumed my hobbies, I started working from home for my company, I recently colored my hair burgundy, and also they are showing "The Desperate Housewives" and "The Big Bang Theory".. So life has got better, touch wood. :) Plus an immense pleasure of being a mom to my little boy who grows up so fast, and Today he is 6 months old :)))

So here what I have been all these months. We went to Kasauli hills few times back in November. Once it was foggy, damp, and a little cold. Some parts of the hills looked like in a dark fairytale... I'm having goose bumps when seeing that fog veiling the trees...

And the abundance of colorful flowers all scattered on the hill side was a pleasant view.

I suppose that once the dahlia seeds were spread by wind from some garden,and since then they have become wild dahlias.

The other time it was sunny and warm, but the night was cold and I couldn't keep my baby out for long. The night in the hills is so different from the one in the city! When our son was sound asleep we spent some time at the balcony, star gazing and watching at the glittering lights in the hills.

The last time we made the trip with our friend and her kids. I even had an opportunity to go for a walk with her and my D without my baby! We admired various flowers growing on the road side.

These reminded me of a tomato plant. I don't know its name though.

Oh,I baked  these days ! I tried out banand cake recipe, eggless, and it turned out great! Also I baked my mom's favorite apple Sharlotka. All made from atta (Indian flour).

As I had said I visited my friends too, and especially enjoyed baking by Lebanese friend. So now I know a little bit of Lebanese kitchen too. 

When the weather started getting colder I made two pairs of crochet slippers.

This pair was made for my sister-in-law.

And yea, I finally finished the throw I began last year.. before  i got to know I was pregnant. I am not a fast crocheter, lol.

This is only my second crochet blanket.  I wanted to incorporate lavender color and beige. If interested, it is the Red heart square pattern I used. Looks totally different from the one on the website. My squares are also smaller.

Dear friends, I will tell more about latest events, how we are trying to implement cultures' chord, what challenges are there when bringing up a child in a multicultural, multilingual family. Till then take care and I miss you all a lot!